GREAT FOOD & SERVICE, BUT NOT RECOMMENDED
Carnival Glory Cruise Review to Caribbean - Eastern
7 Night Eastern Caribbean (Miami Roundtrip)
Sail date: March 24, 2013
Ship: Carnival Glory
Cabin type: Balcony
Traveled as: Family (older children)
Reviewed: 11 years ago
Review summary
Carnival cancelled Grand Turks & added an extra sailing day & extended the times at the other ports. However, they should have stopped in St. Marteen or another island close by. They also cancelled Hidden Paradise Zip-line in San Juan, Puerto Rico, which we booked through Carnival months in advance. However, they rebooked us on another slightly cheaper zip-line with Canopy Tours and it was fun, but not very informative except for the Bus driver who took us there. The tour operator told us Hidden tour was given to Disney cruise members instead of Carnival. Sailed Royal Caribbean (RC) last year, much better ship, Freedom of the Seas and had more to do. Carnival Glory - had comedy, dance shows & gambling. The pool was way too small, because they had a slide put in, very cold and even the hot tub wasn't hot at all. The mini-golf had 8-10 holes, not too difficult, windy location near smoke stack flume & only accessible through basketball/volleyball court. Pizza, Taco bar & burger stand was pretty good. NO signage for the Fish & Chips stand located upstairs, so we never knew about it until too late, but heard it was good. Pizza took too long to come out, they should have prepared more & kept on warm during peak times & very thin crusted! Not enough pool chairs, others saved them too long & was rude when came back to get their seats. They push selling liquor, duty free shops, etc. way too much. Fine dining was the best food & service. Room service was nice, but could have had more selections. Bingo games were fun. However, Carnival should sell only bingo cards if we want them instead of making money off "PULL-TABS" gambling sheets i.e. $10 for bingo, $15 for 3 pull tabs or $10 for bingo + $20 for 4 pull tabs! It was ridiculous. All three bingo cards were on one sheet so the kids could not hold one for themselves unless we spent another $25 for another set of cards! The Carnival sold coupon books at Shopping Show for $25 each. Rip off - RC gave them away for FREE. The best prizes seemed to be Josh, Cruise Director's, 10:30am show on Sail day. Atlantis Aquaventure Park was a blast, long line & very expensive for barely a few hours. Not enough chairs, the beach was pretty, but selling tourist stuff which was more expensive. However, if you don't get enough time to walk down to Straw Market, near the Terminal, which has better bargains than buy it there. In St. Thomas, booked Power Cat 2 Island excursion: Very crowded, but organized & friendly. Bring Cruise towel. It was cold going to next Island. Saw some fish, 1 stingray at Christmas Cove. At Turtle Cove, water was colder, but so worth seeing a few turtles feed on the bottom & come up right next to you. Tour operators sold t-shirts & didn't have enough chips for everyone! Although Carnival spent millions renovating Glory - the layout of different levels to walk back & forth to dining areas & through the Casino was still a pain. They should not allow smoking at ALL in the Casino. Smokers should be required to go out on deck to smoke. Carnival did have better embarkation & disembarkation process and better food booths around pool area than RC.Ship experiences
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